FIA to reactivate stop-list at airports

LAHORE
The FIA has decided to reactivate the process of ‘stop-list’ at all airports to stop the wanted people trying to leave the country due to exhausting process of Exist Control List (ECL).
The move will help the FIA to stop any person wanted in heinous crimes from leaving the country on an emergency basis even his name is not put on the ECL.
The lengthy and time-taking process of putting the wanted people on the ECL helps them fleeing the country without any check. It is learnt that the recent move has been taken after a plethora of complaints submitted to FIA and Interior Ministry by the law enforcement agencies and police complaining that the wanted people often flee the country before their names were put on the ECL. They argued that to stop such people from leaving the country, the practice of ‘stop-list’ should be reactivated at all airports. A senior FIA official Thursday confirmed to The News that to reactivate ‘stop-list’ at airports, the FIA moved a summery to the Interior Ministry for its approval in the first week of the month. He added the same had not been approved as yet. After getting approval from the ministry, the FIA would be able to stop any person involved in serious crimes from leaving the country at airports.
“This will help us stopping those who after committing crimes try to flee the country before their names are put on the ECL,” he said, adding to put any accused on the ECL usually takes one month and during the period the wanted people could leave the country to escape the law, said the official. To a question, the FIA official said, the practice of ‘stop-list’ was introduced in 2003/04, but in 2013, the Supreme Court had barred the FIA from this practice on the basis that sometimes FIA officials stopped innocent people from travelling abroad on various grounds. To another question, he said the Interior Ministry deals with ECL and there are over 8,500 people on the ECL. It is not in our domain to put or remove someone’s name from the ECL, he maintained.